Simon Krenger

Well, I was quite busy before the holidays, but here is another post I just keep for my reference.

For each database, I believe it is important to automate database shutdown and database startup. This way, in case of an emergency, a systems administrator can start and stop database services without the need for a database administator. Oracle provides an excellent article on this topic, but the Oracle documentation is quite generic. So I hereby provide a step-by-step guide for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

1. As the oracle user, edit the /etc/oratab file and add a line for every instance on this particular server in the format SID:ORACLE_HOME:{Y|N|W}, in my example for the instance kdb1:

   $ vim /etc/oratab
   kdb1:/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1:Y

2. Then, let’s create the actual init.d script for our database. Note that you need to adjust the ORACLE_HOME variable and the ORACLE_OWNER variable for the script to work properly. Also, the chkconfig line contains information on when to start or stop the instances, which you might have to change as well.

   $ sudo vim /etc/init.d/oracle
   #!/bin/bash
   # chkconfig: 35 99 10
   # description: Starts and stops Oracle processes
   
   ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1
   ORACLE_OWNER=oracle
   
   PATH=${PATH}:$ORACLE_HOME/bin
   HOST=`hostname`
   PLATFORM=`uname`
   export ORACLE_HOME PATH
   case $1 in
   'start')
           su - $ORACLE_OWNER -c "$ORACLE_HOME/bin/lsnrctl start"
   	su - $ORACLE_OWNER -c "$ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbstart"
           ;;
   'stop')
           su - $ORACLE_OWNER -c "$ORACLE_HOME/bin/lsnrctl stop"
   	su - $ORACLE_OWNER -c "$ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbshut"
           ;;
   *)
           echo "usage: $0 {start|stop}"
           exit 1
   esac
   #
   exit

3. At last, add the newly created init script to the runlevel configuration:

   $ sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/oracle
   $ sudo chkconfig --add oracle

   You can then check if the service was successfully added by running

   $ sudo chkconfig --list

Note that the above method differs from Oracle documentation and you have to verify the scripts before using them on any system. For example, the init script above also starts and stops the Oracle Listener.